


Fantastic components and where to find them

by DucatiUniverse



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-30 03:08:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14487513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DucatiUniverse/pseuds/DucatiUniverse
Summary: Arianna Striegel is appointed as Sebastian Vettel’s new race engineer. Experience her view on Formula1.





	1. Jerez, 2016

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Fantastische Bauteile und wo sie zu finden sind](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/377073) by Ducati. 



> Hello and welcome to my first English fan fiction!  
> I have already published this story in my native language and would like to upload it here again. Just... in English :D  
> I apologize for all typos and grammatical errors! However, I would be very pleased if you would point these out to me so that I can correct them. It's the only way I can learn.
> 
> How did I get the idea for this story? I have had this in mind since I was 13/14, but never had the technical knowledge to implement it. I always wanted to write a technical story, because this is the part in Formula 1 that interests me the most. But as is the case when you are writing, the characters suddenly develop a life of their own. And so this became a love story.  
> I hope you like it. There are 34 chapters with about 90,000 words.  
> The story is finished, but not fully translated yet. Since English is not my native language, I will need a little more time, but you can expect an update every 3 to 4 weeks.  
> It starts in 2016 and is taking his own way from there on.

**Jerez, 2016**

 

"May I introduce you to your new race engineer, Sebastian?" asked Maurizio Arrivabene rhetorically and guided the young German racer to me. I tried to make a relaxed, charming smile. "This is Arianna Striegel. I already told you about her. I'm sure you two will get along fine." The Italian grinned broadly and looked at me.

"Arianna, this is Sebastian. I'm sure you've heard of him." My team boss smiled at me.

I smiled back now less tense. One of the most important qualities that my superior had was his relaxed manner, which immediately removed any nervousness. Now it seemed ridiculous to me that I had just anxiously chewed my fingernails at home. "A little bit maybe", I replied laughing and offered my hand to the German racer. This one grinned at me. "I'm Arianna, the newcomer who makes you world champion again. But you are welcome to call me _Kante_ ", I introduced myself again when he grabbed my hand.

The blond laughed. "And I'm Sebastian. Or Seb, how you like it better", he replied.

 

Well. That's how I got to know the multiple Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel. To this day I'm glad that I didn't scream hysterically and that I didn't blush. I mean, hello? With this guy makes every women’s panties sweat. But I was still very cool and professional. Well, I admit that he didn't have a very attractive effect on me at that time either. Celebrity or not, he was my new colleague and you should keep your distance in advance.

From that day on we are working together, just before the development of the Ferrari SF 16-T came to an end. Riccardo Adami, who had been Sebastian's racing engineer before me, had already worked me in well, practically turning me into his right hand and accompanied Sebastian during the prototype runs on the Ferrari test track Fiorano. So, when he quit suddenly for private reasons, I took his place shortly before the first official test drives in Jerez. Of course, Sebastian and I had met before (for me very memorable events, for him I was certainly only a face in a big crowd) but this week before the test drives in Jerez we meet officially.

 

The morning wind blew coldly over the forecourt of the track in Jerez and made me shiver. I automatically pulled my red softshell jacket closer to me. It was springtime in Spain and much colder compared to the already quite warm Maranello.

I was walking to the box where the Scuderia Ferrari rented in for this week. I already knew the way around, I had been there for two days this week, had held meetings with James Allison, Ferrari’s technical director, and David Greenwood, Kimi Raikkönen's race engineer. There was also a technical approval by the FIA.

My mechanics were a very funny bunch. Only men - who wonders? - and all Italians.

Mainly I would work with Luca Giordano (a thirtysomethings with black hair, who already grayed and had very small and delicate hands), Samuele Rossi (he was a little younger, also dark-haired, but with sharp green eyes. I liked him immediately because of his last name), Nicolo De Luca (a dark blond but frighteningly tanned man who looked the oldest but turned out to be our baby) and Diego Gallo (he was in his mid-thirties and I didn't like him as he looked at my well-hidden breasts quite obviously. Later, however, it turned out that he was just cross-eyed). I already knew chief mechanic Diego Ioverno. He was there for my interview, as were Allison and Arrivabene.

Of course Ferrari had even more mechanics, but they belonged to Greenwood or were jumpers. This fixed division was quite easy to handle anyway. If someone on the other team needed help, they would switch back and forth as well. But Luca, Samuele, Nicolo and Diego besides Ioverno were my main contact persons if something should be changed at the vehicle. As I was already accustomed, I didn't have anything to do with the mechanics of the vehicle. Wrenches were off-limits to Greenwood and me. We were not trained for this and certainly not hired. We had to stand next to the vehicle with our arms crossed over and critical gaze, while the mechanics did what we had instructed them to do.

I thought this regulation was crappy. I don't want to brag, but I was a rather skilful mechanic, so I like to work on my motorcycles and cars with pleasure. And that's been ever since I went through puberty. On the other hand, I understood that statement. At least one less responsibility I had to bear.

But I ramble...

As already mentioned, I was on my way to the Ferrari box, where I was one of the first ones as expected. It was only 7am in the morning. There were a few mechanics around (one of them I identified as Steffan, one of the few who even spoke German), and I greeted them, as well as the data technicians who had apparently only come into the box for coffee. Yes, we have a coffee machine in the box. I used it, before I sat down in the small office, I shared with Greenwood and Allison. No one had their own office on the track except for Arrivabene. Even Sebastian and Kimi had to share their changing rooms with one of the test drivers. But nobody really had a problem with that.

Arriving at my desk, I first checked my email. A few of my old colleagues from the Maranello factory had written me a few lines. Beside "When will you come back and bring cakes?" and "Kante, without you the male quota is much too low" I also got some funny minion and cat baby gifs sent to me. Very sweet.

After I had answered everything - now it was 8 o' clock - I quickly got another coffee before I devoted myself to the official emails and my actual work. Yesterday at noon I had ordered a simulation of the suspension configurations, which I had thought about. No exciting work and to be honest, I found this computer simulation extremely annoying. But unfortunately, this was a standard procedure before we put a programme on the road.

During the simulation we had the virtual SF-16T available as CAD data, as well as an exact scanned copy of the track in Jerez. Simulations are mainly used in the vehicle's construction phase, for example when the first prototype is not even available. Based on the simulation, it is possible to calculate which components are subjected to particularly high loads such as stress, bending, vibrations and so on before the vehicle is manufactured. These vehicle parts can be reinforced or modified in advance. This form of development saves enormous costs. Imagine that Ferrari was already producing the first construction of the SF-16T. When starting the engine, it turns out that the vibrations at the tie rod are so strong that they break as soon as you hit the steering (it sounds abstract, but this has happened before with an automobile manufacturer). This would cost the vehicle manufacturer a lot of money. To avoid this, you first simulate the entire vehicle.

The simulation for our purposes mainly refers to the adjustment of chassis and engine control. In the simulation, we let the vehicle leave the track in Jerez and test where it encounters the ground or whether the vibrations in the vehicle become so strong that other components are subjected to stress at a certain hardness of the spring-damper system. In the first instance, we had to scan the track to have every bump prepared. Admittedly, this was not entirely legal, and the processing of the data set took forever. Luckily, I wasn't in charge of this shit and just had to give the order for it.

So, I only looked at the results of every possible vehicle configuration that was possible. "Every possible vehicle configuration" meant every change was included. This meant that four front wings, nine rear wing settings, five diffusers, 16 different side wings, 27 spring stiffness for front and rear axles, three different differentials, five types of tyres and a few more details had to be combined with each other. A total of over 3 million configuration options had been created. Those that worked were displayed in green and those that had problems were red. Out of 3,234,561 settings, only 537 remained. Sounds radically, I know, but that was a very typical result after the calculation. As I went through the working combinations, however, I noticed that some of them were total blunders and we would never use them anyway. That's why at the end there were about 24 remaining, which I ordered according to priority. I would then submit this list to Sebastian and vote with him.

Around 8.30am Greenwood and Allison showed up and around 9.23am Arrivabene also appeared briefly.

At 9.28am my cell phone rang, and I was informed that Sebastian had shown up and would now have time to be committed by me. Very nice! I collected my paperwork, which mainly contained the simulation data of my tested votes and jumped down.

 

Okay, I wasn't jumping. The last coffee was almost 45 minutes ago.


	2. Innovations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the Hits, Kudos and the comment!! I’m happy, that you like this story!  
> My apologies for the slow updating. I had some problems with translating the technical part in this chapter.  
> Please tell me, if you spot any mistakes!!

Sebastian smiled at me as I entered the box. "Slept well?", he joked.

I smiled cheekily back "Well, the night ended far too quickly", I complained and immediately brewed myself another coffee. "Shall we go somewhere where we can talk in peace? It's going to get pretty noisy here." I shrugged my shoulder to Kimi's Boliden, where the mechanics were preparing for an engine test. I just overheard that Greenbaum had ordered it. My team had already started a test cycle yesterday, which I had evaluated until late into the night.

Sebastian nodded and when the coffee machine had finally done its job, we looked for a conference room.

 

"Well," I started and clapped my papers on the table while Sebastian sat down. "I've got a little something planned for you this weekend. The best way to catch..."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" the blonde racer interrupted me. Surprised, I looked towards him. "How about a little introduction," the blonde suggested. My gaze remained questioning. "I mean, we're going to be working together for a long time now. I think we should get to know each other first. I don't know anything about you yet, except for your name and that call you - for whatever reason - all _Kante_."

I nodded appreciatively and had to laugh. "Okay, so. Shall I begin? Frankly, I've been reading your Wikipedia page, so I think I have an unfair advantage over you."

Sebastian laughed. "That's actually a little unfair. So, shoot it!" 

"Hm, my name is Arianna Striegel. My maiden name was Valluzzi. I've been with Ferrari for about seven years now..."

"Oh, you started here when you were 13," Sebastian flattered me.

Now I had to laugh. "No, at 21, but thanks for thinking I'm 20. That feels very good when you approach 30."

"I know," Sebastian replied and grinned. A fellow sufferer!

I continued without hesitation. "I was born in a small town near Wolfsburg, but my parents are Italians. That's why I speak both German and Italian relatively fluently. At the age of 16, I completed my apprenticeship as a bicycle mechanic, then completed my A-levels and then studied mechanical engineering in Magdeburg. At the same time, I also worked in Oschersleben as an instructor for motorcycle racing training courses...".

"Aaah, you're riding a motorcycle," the racer interrupted me again. "That's why they call you _Kante_?"

I was surprised he could pull that connection. Of course, among German motorcycle racers, _Kante_ was already a relatively common nickname, but I didn't expect him to have so much insight into the scene. _Kante_ could be translated to _Kerb_ by the way.

“Indeed," I confirmed proudly. Riding motorcycles was my only hobby and my favourite anyway. Since I was sitting on the two-wheeler for the first time, there was nothing more fulfilling for me than the intoxication of speed, the flow that was developed on the track, the tingling behind the navel, when you hung deep in a curve, the slight vibration of the asphalt underneath the inner knee of the curve. Of course, the risk was always a big thrill. There were no deformation zones. A small mistake could have been the last one.

"Anyway, one of my apprentices at Oschersleben was head of department at Ferrari and because we got along well. I was looking for a topic for my diploma thesis and he offered me one at Ferrari."

"What did you write your thesis about?" Sebastian looked up with interest.

"Suspension tuning," I explained briefly. "It’s a little complicated. However, it is still on the internal drive, so if you want to read it, I can send it to you. It's not an easy bedtime reading, though."

"I'd love to come back to that," laughed the blond. "So, you were an engineer when you were 21?" I nodded. "Then you must have been pretty good."

Again, I nodded, but still shrugged my shoulders. "Well, I wasn't the very best, but definitely the one that was quickest to finish."

Sebastian honoured the face. "May I ask about your cut?"

"2.6," I answered proudly. "But I got a 1.0 on my thesis. So, I know a lot about chassis, so you're in the best hands."

"Very comforting," Sebastian laughed. "Maurizio had already mentioned that you are the absolute expert in your field."

"That honours me," I replied swollen, so that I would not have to respond directly to the compliment. A little smile got on my lips. "Well, apart from the fact that I'm 5'7" tall (1,71m), naturally blonde and brown-eyed and unfortunately I'm rather 60-60-60, there's no more to tell about me." That wasn't a lie. I was rather scrawny and free of curves, but by doing sports regularly I didn't seem skinny-fat. In fact, there was always a slight six-pack on my stomach, if I ate healthy and regular food and limited my coffee consumption slightly.

"What about your husband?" Sebastian asked unexpectedly, and I flinched involuntarily. Rather unconsciously my right hand slipped against my left ring finger and reached into the void. The question of the German put with a deep kick into the stomach area. I suddenly became hot and at the same time temporarily nauseous, as if suddenly everything was spinning. It was half a year ago now and, yet I didn't get along with such questions. I knew where Sebastian concluded that I was married. After all, I mentioned earlier that I was no longer wearing my maiden name. Maybe I shouldn't mention that anymore. It just gushed out of me.

I took a breath to answer, but I didn't really know anything. Sebastian didn't seem to be able to interpret my short silence.

"Well... uh... you don't wear a ring... I just thought because you said you used to be called Valluzzi..." my compatriot started talking. Apparently, he misinterpreted my surprise.

"No, no, no," I interrupted him. "I mean, yes." Now I got a little stammered myself. "Well, I'm married... at least something like that."

"Something like that?" Sebastian looked at me questioningly.

"Well, so..." Yeah, well. Did I really want to talk about that? "It's complicated," I concluded. "I'll explain another time." I tried for a cheering up smile. I didn't want him to feel upset.

Apparently, he seemed to understand, at least he had a smile like the one I had on my lips and nodded. "Well, tell me about you," I asked then to distract a little. "But not what it says on Wikipedia."

The racer laughed at my joke. "Well, well, I'm Seb and, uh... honestly, I have no idea what's on my Wikipedia." We both had to laugh, and the blond guy drove through his hair. "Well, I have a girlfriend with whom I have two little daughters, Emma and Milena." A very proud smile stole his face. Almost dreamily he seemed to think of his two little girls. "I live in Switzerland." I nodded. I already knew that from the Internet. "Oh, and I like sports. I like walking and climbing or mountain biking."

"Of course, this goes very well in Switzerland."

"Oh, yes. By the way, I also ride motorcycles every now and then", he added, pulling his eyebrows upwards as if he was expecting recognition from me.

"I almost thought so," I laughed. "Do you have your own motorcycles?"

"Had," he confessed. "My girlfriend forced me to give it up when she first got pregnant."

I had to laugh hard. Admittedly, he raised a problem that many men had already complained about.

"And what do you drive?" came the question.

"Whew! Shall I enumerate them all?", I smirked with a grin. I owned about 15 motorcycles. Of these, only three were registered and seven were fit to drive. "Well, I used to race vintage cars with a tuned Guzzi LeMans 1 and now I'm going to race - for example, endurance races for semi-pros - mostly a converted Ducati Panigale. In private, I got a Triumph Street Triple R. Best bike ever, I'll tell you! With this you can roll onto the yard in sixth gear and step on the gas again and it will continue to run smoothly. It's a three-cylinder, though. You better ignore of the sayings about that." I had to laugh a little bit.

"I've heard of it too," replies the racer. "I was supposed to get the Daytona, but I couldn't." He pulled a scam.

"I haven't driven them yet, but they must be very similar," I talked professionally. "She's got the handlebars a little lower, but she's got a few more horsepower. And I think they are also available with automatic transmissions, so you don't need to dock when shifting gears. As far as I know, she's got the same brilliant Ölins-suspension. I've never experienced anything as good as mine before. When I'm driving on the road, I always like to make my suspension a little softer, but on the race track I like it that much tighter. And that works perfectly both ways. A dream of a motorbike. And then it's also so attached to the throttle. You don't have to worry about pulling the gas valve on the curve again." I was on fire and debating with my hands and feet. Sebastian seemed to be very amused about it.

"If you're so enthusiastic about it, I'll probably buy it in secret," he grinned.

"I can only recommend it," I confirmed him with a smile. "Well, are we going back to practice now?" I asked friendly and the racer smiled. "Okay, we've had a few setups simulated before and Gutiérrez has already driven the remaining ones through to see if we might run into any of them. The rest of it's up to you now. We still have eight different setup options, three of which are more like qualifying setups. I don't know if you noticed it, but there is a gap in the regulations this year, so we can have different programs between qualifying and racing. This has not been possible in previous years in this form. We hope that the other programmers who have not been able to convert the ECU so well. What we must test this week are the possible programs we have, then we have four different noses, all of which you would have to test drive on every type of tyre. "I've drawn up a little timetable here for the various options." I handed him the three sides. "So, we have a rather tight program ahead of us."

Nodding and with bloated cheeks Sebastian leafed through the papers. "Oh, my God, the back is printed too," he noted with surprise.

"Yep, we would like to test the programs once if possible," I agreed.

"By the way: what exactly do you mean by these _programs_?", checked Sebastian out.

"In principle, this is a module that we have integrated into the control unit, which allows us to intervene in the spring/damper system, for example, at any time. In more sporty cars this kind of thing is already fitted as standard. Up to now, this has just not been possible in Formula 1 in this form," I explained. The blond nodded attentively.

"So, you can change my suspension during the race?"

"For example, yes. For example, we can change the contact pressure when it suddenly starts raining during the race. The only problem is that the vehicle must stand when it is changed. So, we can only intervene during pit stops. It's very simple. We've already tested that."

"Why does the vehicle have to stop?", checked with Sebastian.

I pinched my lips together for a moment of reflection. I was not sure how well Sebastian was already familiar with this area. "Well, for example, we adjust the spring/damper system. We have mounted a thread above the springs which is connected to an electric motor. The control unit then processes the information that we want a harder chassis and the spring is pretensioned. If the engine turns the thread and you run over a small unevenness, then we get an impulse on the suspension strut that transfers directly to the thread. As a result, the control unit can no longer adjust the spring precisely and must readjust if necessary. The thread is also affected. Then we would need a new suspension after half a weekend and you would get a penalty," I explained the basic system.

"Hm, doesn't Mercedes use something like this in some series production vehicles, for example to lift the wheel in front of a curb? That's what happens while I'm driving," the racer interrupted me.

I raised my eyebrows in astonishment. That boy was well informed. "That's true, but with these things, they work with air suspension. We have a mechanical spring. Air suspension would be too heavy and bulky and not appropriate for our purposes," I explained. "What you can personally change in the cockpit while driving is the control of the engine control unit. We can give you more top speed and acceleration at the start and, if you have a free ride, downshift so that you can drive more gently on the tyres and with less fuel," I explained and hoped that he could roughly understand what I was getting at.

Astonished, Sebastian raised his brows.  "And why can I adjust that while I'm driving and not the suspension?"

"Because all we do is change the injection ratio."

"Meaning...?"

"We have a combination of intake manifold and direct injection. In direct injection, as the name suggests, we inject directly into the cylinder. It'll put more pressure on the combustion chamber. However, this also puts quite a lot of strain on the engine. In fact, we have this "Renault problem" from a few years ago that the combustion chamber freezes if we only run the engine on direct injection for too long.

With intake manifold injection, we already inject in the suction pipe so that the air-fuel mixture can mix before the intake valve. This puts less strain on the engine and consumes less gasoline."

"That sounds exciting."

"It is," I replied, laughing slightly. "I thought you wanted to know what I wrote my thesis about. It was about this engine and chassis control."

"Well, if you don't have a problem with that, I'd like to look at your work tonight as bedtime reading," Sebastian asked.

I nodded. "I'll send it to you later. Now let's get your car on the road first. The boys should have everything programmed by now."


	3. Melbourne, 2016

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was a long pause since the last update. I am very sorry about that. The translation is very difficult for me and I have to concentrate very much on it. Thanks a lot for the kudos and the hits.  
> Have fun with the next chapter. You are welcome to point out mistakes to me.

It turned out that our Ferraris drove far superior to the competition. Even Mercedes, who dominated almost everything in the last few years, couldn't reach Sebastian's and Kimi's times. I admit that that's why I left Jerez in a great mood and couldn't stand the two weeks to Australia.

We had simply developed a dominant car this year. Not only were we able to get the most out of the aerodynamics and engine, but our little programming trick gave us the same advantage as Brawn 2009 with their diffuser.

I arrived in Australia with the team at the end of March. The good thing about flying with the rest of the team was that Ferrari took care of the travel costs and you could usually stay one more night in the noble hotel. I spent the beginning of the flight talking to Greenwood and Allison about the telemetry data we collected on the test cycles. Then I slept until the stopover and played Angry Bird during the onward flight. Sebastian would only arrive two days later to spend some time with his family, I was told. But Britta was already on the plane with us.

The assembly in the box went smoothly. Our team got the pits three and four. I couldn't wait for the trainings to start.

 

Thursday, I met Sebastian. We did an inspection of the track with the entire technical and tactical team, discussed approach points, bumps, wet hazards and so on. I was mainly thinking about which suspension setting would be most appropriate and how I would approach the corners if I was on my bike. Allison and I made a bet on what top speed we would achieve on the straights with our fastest setup. With Sebastian I discussed our approach to tomorrow's practice. I had already planned it and he wanted to make some minor changes. The whole thing turned out to be a rough discussion, so we decided to talk about it again in the evening.

 

So, we met in the evening in the hotel bar, drank beer - the Australian tastes more like Kölsch for my tongue - and consulted each other. Sebastian absolutely wanted to do without testing the soft suspension tuning. In his opinion this wastes only time, because he wouldn't drive it in the qualification or the race anyway. I, on the other hand, wanted to keep it for research purposes.

"Okay, how about that", I suggested a compromise. "We test the soft set-up at least once with the hard tyres, okay? I admit that the soft tyres are rather inappropriate. Even if the set-up is of course a lot gentler on the tyres...".

"Aargh, well", Sebastian admitted to being beaten. "You won.  Once with hard tyres. But I'll tell you right away that I won't use that."

"Thank you," I smiled and allowed myself a sip of my beer. Sebastian had to smile about that.

For a while we sat there in silence. I was actually pretty sure that Sebastian was coming up with another line of argument to avoid driving the set-up, but instead he surprised me with the words: "Are you going to tell me what's going on with you and your husband?

Again, a small stab went through me. Maybe it was the beer, but his words didn't hit me as hard as the first time. Nevertheless, I denied it.

The racer was silent for a moment and I hoped he would drop the subject. But he did not. "How about I tell you something bad about my relationship first," Sebastian suggested.

I thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay, then surprise me Champion."

"My girlfriend and I haven't had sex since our second daughter was born in September last year," he confessed.

Surprised, I choked on my beer. "Are you serious?"

The ex-world champion nodded. "Unfortunately, yes.

"That's why you have such soft hands," I concluded, hoping to ease the tension a little.

Sebastian laughed. "Yes, and I don't have any fingernails anymore!" Demonstratively he held his hands towards me.

"Oh, I feel the same way there." I had to laugh and showed him my chewed nails. Compared to his, mine still looked relatively normal. However, my nail polish was half peeled off.

"So... are you going to tell me what's the matter with your husband?" Sebastian asked carefully. Somewhat sadly, I looked at the small remainder of foam on the edge of my beer glass.

"Oh... well", I began. "He's dead." It was strange to say that. I couldn't remember having said it in that form before.

"Oh", it came very surprised from the racer. "I honestly expected a bad divorce."

I managed to laugh. "Well, sometimes I wish it had been that." I looked up and saw Sebastian's shocked face. "I mean, if we had divorced, there would have been a reason why we split. I could have hated him and told myself he was an ass, that I could find something better and deserve it. All that stuff."  I paused for a moment and sighed, "So he's just gone and left this... Emptiness". I took a few sips of my beer.

"I'm really sorry about that, Arianna." His answer was honest. Although I had heard that sentence a thousand times before, it comforted me a little.

"You couldn't have changed it," I replied and took two more sips of my beer.

"How... Uh... May I ask how it happened?", Sebastian followed curiously.

"Car accident", I answered simply. "A truck driver took his right of way and..." I made a gesture to simulate the impact. "He was seriously injured and conscious when he went to hospital. He even asked about me. When I finally arrived at the hospital, he was already in a coma. He didn't wake up from that... After a few days the doctors diagnosed him as brain dead." Another few sips of beer. Sebastian listened to me carefully and didn't seem to know what to say. "Since he was an organ donor, the doctors advised me to switch off the machines... and so I did."

Now Sebastian also sipped his beer. "Shit, Kante." He drank half a glass in one go.

"Yep," I confirmed and emptied the last moves of my drink.

"How long has it been?" asked Sebastian, while I told the waitress, who was just looking at us, that I wanted two more beers.

"About half a year," I said. "Last year end of July."

"Then it's even been three quarters of a year," my counterpart corrected me. My eyes narrowed to slits. I didn't want to hear anything like that.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any better," I replied.

"I mean..." Sebastian seemed to think for a moment and then emptied his beer. "Have you met anyone since then?"

Surprised, I pulled up my brows and looked at the blond guy. "No. Why do you think that?"

He shrugged innocently. "You are young, attractive and smart. If someone is a good catch, it's you."

My mouth corners twitched. "Thank you. It's not like nobody's interested either. I just don't feel like getting involved with anyone new."

Sebastian looked at me questioningly and I thought about how to explain it.

"Do you know How I met your Mother?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"Also the episode in which the story is told from the mother's point of view?"

He thought for a moment and then nodded again.

"To be honest, when I saw the episode, I thought that she was really stupid if she thought that no guy would come anymore. Now I understand that. It's like the first lottery ticket I ever bought was a jackpot! And I'm pretty sure I'm not going to win again. Not like that anyway." I waved my beer glass in my hand and watched the last drop that was making its lonely way on the ground.

"But Tracy also finds Ted. Doesn't that contradict your theory," Sebastian said.

"It's a TV show, Sebastian." I looked seriously at the man in front of me.

Our beer came. Grinning, I observed that the waitress bent over quite a bit as she handed Sebastian his beer and took off his empty beer. Nice as I was, I pushed my empty beer over to the racer so he could catch a longer glimpse of the dark-haired bartender's cleavage. I was quite amused that he couldn't really take his eyes off the big pair of breasts. He asked for the bill and the pretty woman leaned gracefully over to him as she took the payment with a generous tip.

"You should have shoved the bills down her cleavage," I laughed as the brunette danced away.

The racer seemed to want to return something, but just shook his head laughing. "Man, it's really bad to be so famous and wanted," he complained with a mischievous grin.

"Oh yes, I bet every man feels sorry for you", I said laughing. We lifted our glasses and toasted. "To big breasts," I protested.

"... and low necklines," Sebastian added, and we both took some low sip.

"After this beer you should probably go to bed so that you have enough time to masturbate," I winked.

Sebastian laughed. "You can come with me," he said. Before wrong conclusions are drawn here now: He clearly meant that ironically.

"Aaah, better not", I said ,"Celebrity or not, I can think of something more pleasant than watching you do that." Now we both had to laugh about that. I was glad that we could talk so freely, even though we had just talked about a very emotional topic.

We drank chattily and then went together to the floor that Ferrari had rented. There we wished each other a good night and disappeared into our beds.

 

 

Friday morning I met Sebastian in the elevator when I was on my way to breakfast.

"Oh, good morning, Mrs. Engineer," the race driver greeted me friendly as I entered the cabin.

"Good morning, Mr. Racer," I said. My gaze wandered to the tall, blond guy next to Sebastian.

"That's Antti, my physiotherapist," Sebastian immediately introduced me to him in English. I admit that I have already seen the man on television a few times.

"Hi, Arianna," I introduced myself to the blonde and he kindly returned my greeting.

We held some small talk on the way to the breakfast room. In the entrance of this stand a huge newspaper rack with international magazines. From Germany - to my great annoyance - only the Bildzeitung was available, which is why I did not pay attention to the stand.

As we passed it, I heard Sebastian chuckle softly. I looked at him questioningly.

"Did you see the headline of the Bildzeitung," he asked amusedly. I denied it. Yyou have to look at it on the way back."

I was sure that there was again something about Greece or refugees or the Volkswagen emission scandal, which in the meantime spread over the entire mass automobile industry and answered with an "Okay".

I sat down over to 'my' mechanics, who had already waved me to them from further away. Sebastian joined Kimi Räikkönen and his physiotherapist Mark Arnell.

"Well, Mrs. Boss, slept well?" Luca asked me and grinned mischievously as I sat down.

"Of course," I replied laughing and poured coffee.

"Are there any changes with the schedule now", Diego Ioverno (the chief mechanic) asked, who had noticed yesterday that Sebastian and I had a discussion about that.

"Only slightly," I replied and took a sip of coffee. "I already had the changed one printed. It's already in the motorhome." If WiFi connections were good for something, it was for being able to send something from the hotel room to a printing station three kilometres away. Long live the Internet!

"Good," said Ioverno.

"I'll explain it to you right away, I'll just get something to eat first," I said then and got up from my chair.

I got myself a plate and glimpsed at the breakfast buffet. I was about to grab a roll when someone suddenly spoke to me.

"Hey, you're Arianna Striegel, right? Sebastian's race engineer?"

A little surprised I looked up and looked into a friendly smiling face with bright blue eyes. I immediately recognized the person in front of me as Nico Hülkenberg. The guy was very pretty to look at. Since he arrived in Formula 1, I found him already extremely attractive. At least as far as you could judge it on TV.

He is tall, about as tall as my deceased husband. Now that I had to think of him, I also noticed that Hülkenberg had the same eye colour. Besides, their noses were relatively similar. My gaze scurried over his body to find more similarities. This white polo shirt. My husband also had one, but never wore it because it didn't fit his cool rocker image.

"Um... Hello," it came from the blond racer in front of me. His voice was much higher than that of my husband. Apparently, I waited too long with my answer.

"What? Oh... Sorry! I was in my thoughts," I quickly talked my way out and brought a smile to my lips. "Yes, I am Arianna. And you are Nico Hülkenberg, if I'm not very wrong."

"Yes, exactly," he grinned, obviously relieved that he got an answer from me after all.

"Sorry”, I said again. "I was just so surprised that you knew my name."

Nico laughed. "Oh, if there is a female engineer, everyone is always on fire. Word gets around incredibly fast."

"Well, will my supervisor be taken away now?" Sebastian's voice suddenly sounded behind me. I was incredibly relieved that he showed up, because the strong urge to compare Nico with my husband unsettled me beyond all measure.

"Yes, I was already planning to let this become a job interview," joked Nico. I heard the laughter of the two opponents and grabbed the topping for my roll.

As fast as possible I left the conversation between the racers and went back to the table where the mechanics were still chatting and eating.

"Did you get between the fronts", Samuele asked with a grin and nodded his head to Nico and Sebastian, who were still talking.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Actually not. I made myself invisible before it became critical," I grinned. I hoped that I could cover up my insecurity. I buttered my bun and talked to Ioverno about the changes Seb and I had made to the training schedule.

 

After a good twenty minutes the breakfast and the "meeting" was over. Together with the mechanics I left the dining room. My eyes glided to the newspaper rack. The title page of the Bildzeitung immediately caught my eye.

**Sebastian Vettel: Arianna Striegel is the new woman at his side.**


	4. Qualifying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! A wild NEW CHAPTER appears! I don't even have an apology. I'm just lazy and dumb and have a really hard time translating this :D
> 
> But @formulaoneisfast helped me so so so much by betaing this story. I feel a lot more confident posting this now. And I actually learned something :) Thank you so much!!
> 
> Now have fun reading. It's Qualifying! So fingers crossed for an Ferrari-Pole :)

The two training sessions on Friday went according to plan. Sebastian finished second and fifth in each session. It had been intended that Sebastian should not drive a whole lap at his optimum before Saturday. He should only limit himself to driving each sector well in different laps.

In the third practice Sebastian was allowed to give everything and got very close to the times we had calculated for him. He became best in training with 0,563 seconds ahead of Kimi. Kimi was second. However, Kimi drove with the optimally tuned qualifying set-up while Sebastian ran on a race configuration.

I was more than excited to see what Sebastian would get out of the qualifying.

Shortly before the start of Q1 Sebastian and I again consulted which programme he wanted to start with. He opted for the Triple X setup - that was an unofficial name I had come up with. It meant hard suspension and a slight shift to the rear brake. This was not an optimal set-up for a race distance, but it was perfect for qualifying. Sebastian also had the best times in each sector with this setup.

Q1 started and as Sebastian got into his car, I sat back at the control panel. We had decided to let Sebastian out after ten minutes. I looked for a moment when there was a gap for him and then sent him out for the warm-up lap. I was watching his position as well as his competition. Halfway through, Button drove past him on his fast lap. Two corners later, the Brit missed his braking point and stopped the fast lap. Sebastian's fast lap would make him overtake Button, probably in turn three.

"Slow down, otherwise you'll run into Button," I informed my driver and took a look at his tyres and brake temperature. "The front left tyre is still too cold.

I continued to watch the telemetry. Button drove into the pits. So Sebastian had a free ride. Turn 15...

With a lot of momentum he came out of turn 16 and accelerated with open wing up the start-finish-straight. 311km/h he reached at the braking point to the first turn, rear wing closed, with 263km/h he left turn 2, rear wing open.

At the end of the straight his DRS was deactivated and Sebastian braked down to 113km/h for corner 3 and 4. The soft turn 5 follows and shortly after on the straight I got the first sector time. 26.1s. Holy shit! The whole weekend nobody had come under 26.7s! And that had also been Sebastian!

I watched his brake temperatures as he slightly braked his way into turn 9. With 226km/h he slipped through it. Shortly before turn 11 I got the second sector time. 23.1s. Damn, that was 0.3s better than in practice.

I was worried about the last sector. Sebastian had already completed the slight braking before turn 12. Now he was on the slightly bent straight before turn 13. He braked strongly, the brake temperatures on my telemetry quickly peaked, but everything was in the frame, even far below our limit.

Acceleration. Another deceleration before turn 14, turn 15, turn 16...

With far more than 100km/h he left the last bend and accelerated on the target grades. At 34.4s the flag dropped.

Holy shit! That was again a purple time.

Sebastian had just set a best lap time of 1:23:632! That was 1.3s faster than his best times in training best times. Where the hell did he get them from?

"Cool down", I told him, while I looked at the lap times of the other drivers. Arrivabene next to me laughed appreciatively and patted me on the shoulder. I couldn't stop grinning broadly.

Hamilton and Massa had already completed a fast lap and were on 2nd and 3rd place so far, but with gaps of 1.357s and 1.478s to Sebastian's best time.

"You can come into the pits," I informed Sebastian by radio. "Nobody will beat your time." It sounded like a risky thesis, as there were still nine minutes to drive, but I doubt anyone could even come close to his time. Well, Kimi maybe.

Arrivabene again laughed loudly and Allison and Greenwood looked at me amused. Apparently they had heard my radio call.

I waited until Sebastian came into the pits and then let a moment pass to run over to him. There I patted him on the shoulder. That was all of him I could reach, because he was still sitting in his car and had only taken off his helmet.

I pulled my braid a little tighter so that my hair wouldn't flutter around in the wind of the ventilation in Sebastian’s Cockpit.

"Can you tell me where you found that damn second?" I asked the driver with a grin as I sat next to him.

"It was just there suddenly," he joked as his gaze flew over the telemetry data given to him by Luca. The Italian informed me that my radio message had been released by the FIA and was therefore audible on all TV channels earlier.

I stayed in the box until the session was over. As it turned out I was right. Apart from Kimi, nobody came closer to Sebastian's best time. And even to him my protégé had a cushion of five tenths.

 

Q2 went just as well. Sebastian was allowed to drive a bit more relaxed and so he landed with a 1:23:823 on position 2 behind Kimi. He had won 0,05s on Sebastian in the last sector. Sebastian drove Q1 and Q2 with the same tyres.

I was even more excited about Q3, when Sebastian was remoulded with a new set of soft tyres. I knew Sebastian hadn't given everything in Q2. There was more to it. But was he able to do that within one lap?

As soon as the third session started, the track was already completely full. No gap for our Ferraris. Kimi went out first.

Sebastian insisted on the radio that he finally wanted to drive. When Hülkenberg drove into the pits there was finally a gap. Immediately I sent Sebastian off.

As in the previous sessions, I was incredibly nervous when Sebastian accelerated out of the last two corners. This lap everything just had to fit! There was no further to go. He was the last one on the track. Tyre temperature was optimal, the rear left brake was a bit too cool in the corner, the rest was perfect.

314km/h at the end of the start/finish straight. That was fantastic. In corner 5 the time for qualifying ran out.

First sector time: 26,07s

Oh, that looked damn good.

Kimi just shot across the finish line and beat Hamilton's previous best time by 0.251s. His time was 1:23:687, but Sebastian's first sector was better than Kimi's.

In the second sector Kimi was 0.08s faster. But that didn't matter, because Sebastian was ahead in both sectors.

The penultimate turn... the last turn... In telemetry I could see that Sebastian had started accelerating at the perfect moment.

Please be faster, please be faster,....

The flag fell at 1:23:511.

Holy shit! Pole position! Even through the headphones I could hear the guys cheering in the pits. Maurizio hit me happily on the shoulders. "Very good, very good," he said to me and shouted at the same time through the radio.

"Pole Position", I shouted happily into the radio so that Sebastian could hear it too. "You crazy little idiot!"

As an answer we only heard cheers and cries of thanks from the racer. An overwhelming feeling to hear the whole team cheering. Allison briefly held me in his arms, Greenwood shook my hand roughly.

Great, just great!


	5. Briefing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaaat? An update? So fast? :D
> 
> Thanks to @formularoneisfast for betaing :) And for all your lovely comments. This is really pushing to go faster :)

The team was so euphoric that one might think that we had already won the race. From all sides someone took me in their arms and shook my hand, so I almost couldn't get through to the car to read the control unit. Okay, to have it read, you got me!

Samuele took it all in his hands for me, not without hitting me so hard on the back that I felt like my ribs would break.

After a good hour Sebastian showed up and the whole team, which seemed to have just calmed down, fell back into a flurry of victory. Sebastian was lifted - I was a little afraid that someone would throw him against the ceiling - and hugged. At some point he reached me and pulled me into a hug as well. We vigorously patted each other on the back as we pressed firmly against each other. He smelled slightly of sweat, but in the ecstasy of joy I didn't care.

"Thank you for this brilliant tuning," he said to me.

I had to laugh while we let go of each other. "Dude, that's my job", I played the whole thing down.

"Yes, and you’re doing it fantastically," he said and patted on the shoulder one last time.

"And you? My goodness, do you realize that you beat the track record?" I asked him enthusiastically.  The driver shook his head. "Seriously, you broke your 2011 record. I just had to check three times before I could believe it."

"Great", Sebastian grinned, and I got another clap on the shoulder. But this time from Britta, who had shown up behind Sebastian and disappeared immediately because one of her three phones started ringing.

"By the way, I already read out the cars data. Not only were you extremely fast, but your tyres are still in top condition. With that we can have a superior strategy tomorrow. I've already prepared our stop strategies a little bit..." I said, but Sebastian interrupted me.

"Woooah, wait, before we talk about it, let me take a shower first and change into something else, okay?" Oh, good point. He was still wearing his overall.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" I said.

"I was asked about you at the press conference, by the way," the German told me before he left.

Surprised, I looked at him. "Really? Why?"

"They wanted to know what it's like when a woman tells you what to do," he said. "I said it’s hard to believe you are a woman at all. You have the behaviour of a guy."

"Oh, you didn't say that," I laughed and gently hit him against the side.

The blond only had one laugh left. "No, I didn't. I said that you know what you're doing and that you know how to manage it. It's easy to follow your orders."

"Oh, you are sweet. Thank you," I said blushing. I found it really touching that he said such nice things about me in the press.

He waved off and then disappeared into the shower. In the meantime, I consulted Greenwood, Allison and Ioverno about the pit stops of our two drivers.

The sun slowly set over the Albert Park Circuit and I was starting to get hungry. I had hardly been able to get anything down this morning and this afternoon I had completely given up on eating. There was just too much to do.

Sebastian came out of the pits refreshed from his shower. His gaze was looking for me, so I waved at him briefly.

"I'll check with Sebastian," I said to the other three technicians. We had already changed the subject from work to the new LaFerrari anyway.

"Maybe we want to talk while we eat? I'm hungry," Sebastian suggested. I could definitely only agree with that. My stomach was already growling unpleasantly.

"Gladly," I replied, and we moved to the team restaurant of our Motorhome. As I had already noticed the last few days, there were a lot of reporters and visitors walking around, filming and presenting themselves.

As we sat down, a dedicated waiter rushed towards us. "I wish you a wonderful evening. You have done a few marvellous rounds, Mr. Vettel. The whole restaurant was completely captivated by you," he greeted us super friendly. He smiled fondly at me.

"Thank you, thank you," Sebastian said grinning. "I hope it works out just as well tomorrow." Did he have some phrases already arranged? Did something like that come automatically?

"For sure!" said the waiter, slapping his hands in the air. "I suppose you two wish to dine?" We nodded. "A meal has already been deposited for you by your physiotherapist. I suppose you would like to eat it?"

Sebastian nodded and ordered a water in addition. I ordered the same.

The waiter made a note and then left us smiling.

I took advantage of the free space and spread out the papers I had taken with me. Sebastian bent over with interest. I explained to him what I had already discussed with Allison and Arrivabene.

"Well, with the soft tyres you've got, you can probably stay out for about twelve laps. Then we want to switch to medium. According to our extrapolation, they would have to endure 37 laps, give or take three. That means we can't go race distance without a second stop, maybe we'd even have to do a third if the hard ones don't last as long as we think." I said.

"Well, the others won't be able to avoid that either," Sebastian added.

"We don't know that. Nobody has driven longer stints before. If the Mercedes turn out to be tyre-friendly, it's going to be tight for us," I said. "You'd have to be a lot faster to make up for that."

"Don't we have a program that protects the tyres?"

"Yes, but the gentleman didn't want to try that in the tests", I teased him and grinned mischievously.

Sebastian threw his head into his neck and groaned. "But we tested it with the hard ones."

"Yes, but there is a mathematical possibility that the program for the softer ones runs better. That would turn twelve rounds into a total of 17."

The driver pinched his lips together. "Okay, but you can't put that in for the start, can you?"

"No, I'd keep the current setting for now. On the one hand, it brings the power to the road when you start, and on the other hand it lets you drive ahead or on the race line."

"So, we'll start with Triple X. And what do you want for the 37 laps with the medium?", Sebastian asked.

"Depending on what it looks like for them, we'll take Blue Lagoon or Red Shark." Sebastian had made up the names. "We'd also have the option of Violet Drop, but I'd rather leave that be."

Maybe a little translation at this point. Blue Lagoon was a medium suspension setting that put the brake balance more on the front axle to protect the rear axle. The engine is a bit less powerful, but the car presses itself more against the road. It sounds crazy, but during the tests we had the least wear on all four tires and were able to keep very good lap times. In addition, the engine was preserved. Unfortunately, the setting is rather unsuitable for a possible duel or generally the drives in traffic. The suspension was too low when driving on the battle line.

Red Shark was the opposite of the Blue Lagoon. The chassis was super tight, which was especially difficult to drive on the hard tyres - although not for Sebastian. The brake balance was equal on both axles, the engine got more power than with Blue Lagoon, but less than Triple-X. This configuration was particularly suited to the medium tyres when driving in traffic or when a duel was coming up. Unfortunately, the setting also has a higher tyre degradation level.

Violet Drop was also a hard suspension adjustment, but with the brake balance shifted to the rear and higher downforce. The soft tyres dropping off slower than expected, but the rear brake quickly became very hot. The medium tyres would wear out a bit faster, but you could drive times as if you were driving on the soft compound.

"And for the last stint I'll get the soft tyres again?" Sebastian asked.

"That would be the most logical thing to do. Depending on how well you're doing, you'll get Triple-X or Violet Drop," I added. "We also have a fresh set of softs.”

"Maybe one that has only been driven once so far? "

"No, only the ones from Q1 and Q2 are left", I confessed to him.

"Okay, then the fresh ones." Sebastian decided and smiled at me.

The waiter appeared with our drinks. It wasn't until I put eyes on my glass that I realized how thirsty I really was.

"Are you nervous before our first race together?" Sebastian asked and grinned mischievously.

I laughed. "Yes, a little. I guess I worry too much. David is a lot more relaxed than I am."

"He's been around for a few years now. You'll get there too," said Sebastian. "Maurizio told me that you were very fidgety in my fast laps." He laughed as well.

Caught, my eyes widened. Had I really been so nervous? Now that I was thinking about it, I remembered my feet were going up and down all the time and I had chewed my fingernails even more. Involuntarily my gaze slid towards them. "Would be possible," I said and had to grin about myself.

Understanding Sebastian leaned a little forward. "You don't need to worry. Nothing happens to me during the race.

"I know that. I helped develop the car," I immediately rejected his assumption. "I'm more worried that you'll take my baby apart."

"Pah!" Sebastian leaned back again. He seemed to want to appear offended, but he couldn't help smiling. "And I thought you cared about me."

"Oh, come on, as if something would happen to you", I defended myself. "The only thing that can happen is that you beat me up if something is wrong with your Margherita." Margherita was the name his bolide wore this year.

Sebastian tilted his head. "Would be possible," he confessed then and took a few sips of his water.

"Anyway, this is all quite new for me. I've never been a race engineer and in the amateur races I've driven before I was basically a driver, engineer and mechanic all in one. Only I had the responsibility for myself. Now your happiness depends on my actions and that really puts me under a bit of pressure," I confessed.

Smiling, Sebastian leaned forward again. "Don't worry, you'll rock it. You have definitely presented yourself well so far. You have a talent for it."

"Thank you," I said and returned his smile. "Just win as clearly and risk-free as possible tomorrow and I'll be happy."

The blond laughed. "Don’t worry, Arianna. I'll be fine."


	6. The first race

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your comments and kudos :)
> 
> And a real big THANK YOU to formulaoneisfast for betaing!!

_Don’t worry, Arianna. I’ll be fine._

Oh, that’s not what it looked like right now. My feet were tapping so bad, I could barely focus on the screen. And my fingers hurt, because I chewed my nails too short.

Sebastian’s start was totally off the rail. He did not find the correct bite point of the clutch and since this year I wasn’t able to correct him while starting. I was desperate to scream at him, yell across the engine sounds. But there is nothing I could have done. So I helplessly watched Kimi catch up with Sebastian. They fought for the better pace and Hamilton passed them almost without a fight. Sebastian stayed ahead of Kimi in the first turn, but Hamilton pulled away.

We timed our first stop better than Mercedes did, so Sebastian was able to get closer to Hamilton again after both of our teams were in the pits. Both were on hard tyres now. Hamilton for 36 laps, Sebastian for 35. If our extrapolation was right, the Mercedes would have to stop next lap. Not that we could rely on that. As we were driving on Red Shark, Sebastian was already complaining about the lack of grip. The tyres were nearly done.

But Hamilton also got slower, so they didn’t lose too much to each other. Only three tenth of a second separated them.

We needed to box Sebastian the next lap. We would change to Violet Drop, because Sebastian would get out without traffic. He could speed and save tyres, so we didn’t need to stop another time. If we were lucky one more lap on the soft tyres would be enough to overtake Hamilton.

The rivals passed turn 14, Sebastian got closer. Turn 15, now the pit lane and…

NO!

Fucking hell, Hamilton boxed too! I looked over to the Mercedes box. The mechanics carried the tyres out, everything perfectly planned. Those evil bastards fooled us.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” I said to myself. Violet Drop wouldn’t help Sebastian to get pass Lewis. We needed a change. “Triple-X! Triple-X!!” I screamed into the team radio. Luca reacted immediately. He harshly typed into the pedal that was connected to the ECU.

I saw Hamilton getting closer, Sebastian right behind him. This stop had to be perfect. I looked at Luca, who was ready in his position, waiting for Sebastian to arrive. Program was ready to upload, I could see it on my screen.

Hamilton drove past us. Sebastian stopped in front of us.

Pedal connected.

Four tyres down.

Program loaded.

Luca disconnected the device at the same time the last tyre was fixed.

Lollypop rises, Sebastian drove of.

IT WORKED!

I looked over to the Mercedes-box. Hamilton was ready too. But they couldn’t let him drive, because Sebastian was already to close. That would be an unsafe release. Lollypop stayed down.

But Hamilton drove of, the mechanics jumped away in the last second. It was close. He nearly hit Sebastian, putting him into the pitwall. But Sebastian hesitated. And this little slow down was enough for Hamilton get past him.

Fuck! _Fuck!_ FUCK!!

Furious I got up from my chair. Screaming, showing rude gestures to Mercedes. “That was an unsafe release!”, I yelled, looking back to my colleague. Greenwood gestured me to calm down, Maurizio already talked to race control.

Oh, how much did I hate Hamilton right now. Every fiber of me wanted to punch this dick in his arrogant face. This… this… ARGH! I normally don’t get so involved in this hate toward drivers, but at this very moment I was full of rage at this stupid Brit. I wish he would make a mistake. Just bad enough to make him retire. I know that’s not sportsmanlike, but screw that!

I looked back onto my displays. The update to Triple-X was successful, tyres had the perfect temperature.

“You better overtake Hamilton now. No time to screw around”, I told Sebastian through the radio.

“Funny”, he said. Maybe I should tell him after the race, that my words weren’t meant to be teasing.

“He’s slowest in sector 2”, I said.

Maurizio laid a hand on my shoulder, showing me to cool down. “He got that.”

I nodded. I wasn’t intending on working myself up again.

The incident in the pitlane had cost us precious time. They were 1.031seconds apart, but Hamilton wasn’t able to pull away. The gap reduced to 0.952s after sector 2.

“Come on, Seb”, I mumbled to myself, pressing my fingers so hard together it hurt. My gaze switched between his laptimes, break and tyre temperature.

They left turn 16 super close to each other. Sebastian’s rear wing opened, giving him extra speed on the exit. He pulled up next to the Brit. They passed the start/finish-line with 0.053s difference.

Sebastian couldn’t hold his line, he got onto the dirty side and had to pull in behind Hamilton again, losing some space.

Stupid crap-shit!

Sebastian pulled closer again.

0.153s after sector 1.

Then it happened! Hamilton made a mistake. He didn’t hit the breakingpoint in turn 9, at least not as well as Sebastian.

Sebastian took the inner line, passing Hamilton as if he was standing.

YES!!

Hold the pace, Sebastian, hold the pace!

“Brilliant!”, I shouted into the team radio. “Now push, push, push!”

He followed my orders. Hamilton wasn’t able to come close again for the last 8 laps.

Finally the chequered flag waved.

Sebastian won!

We won!

Overjoyed Maurizio hugged me, pressed me against him. “Good job, very good job!”, he complimented me.

I laughed. I hugged Allison, Greenwood clapped me on the back.

“You wanna get the team trophy?”, Maurizio asked me.

“Me?” Could this day get any better? “Yes, of course I want to!”

“Well, there you go then. Britta should get you there.”

I waited for a moment to pass the pitlane and got into our box. I was pulled into hugs from every side, patted painfully on the back. Luca lifted me up and spinned us around. I let myself get celebrated for a moment, before I finally reached Britta, who hugged me too.

“I’m getting the team trophy”, I told her beaming. She understood, showing me to the stairs, which lead to the trophy room. From there on I had to walk alone.

I climbed the stairs and went through a hallway where clapping grid girls welcomed me. One of them showed me the room I should get into.

Excited I waited inside. I wasn’t alone. There was a two-men camerateam who was busy sorting their equipment. They greeted me though, congratulating me to the teams success.

The cheers from outside filled the small room. It felt like the whole track was under some form of electricity. I looked out of the only window in the room, trying to get a look at Parc Fermé. I couldn’t see anything.

Lewis Hamilton was the first one to get into the room. He nodded towards me, greeting. I took the chance to shake his hand for a congratulation. “Good fight”, I said, “Your start was perfect.”

He thanked me with a small smile, that didn’t reach his eyes. He was probably pissed that he was only second.

A few seconds later Kimi arrived. He was third and looked exhausted. He had struggled with enormous problems on his car. The break balance was totally wrong and he had to fight with it during the whole race. It was some sort of miracle, that he was still able to get third place in the end.

He smiled when he saw me. I hugged him. “Very good job, man” I said and beamed at him with excitement.

And then finally Sebastian walked into the room. “Walked” is not really the right word for it. He jumped into me and hugged me so hard I felt my ribs crack a little. But the lack of air didn’t matter in this second. I was way too proud of him.

“You are my hero now”, I told him with the air I had left in my lungs, giggling. “Back home I will hang some posters on the wall.”

He laughed and let go of me. “This one is totally on you. Without your decision we wouldn’t stand here right now.” I knew he meant the Triple-X thing.

 

 

The trophy ceremony was about to begin. Kimi got out first, followed by Lewis.

I looked at Sebastian one last time, he beamed at me before he got out too. I heard the cheers, the excitement the bright flashing lights when I followed him. I smiled so hard, this was probably the best thing ever. Nothing could have brought me down.

 

When all of us finally where on our places, the German national anthem played and I silently hummed it. Next to go was the Italian. Our team under the podium sang along so loudly, that you nearly didn’t hear the orchestra.

I laughed and beamed when the music ended. The cheers from below got even louder, an amazing feeling.

The drivers put their caps on again and the trophies were handed over. Sebastian first, and I have no idea how the crowd below could even get louder. Sebastian waved his prize around, making people go insane.

I got the team trophy next. The man handing it to me, congratulated me and I thanked him before yanking the trophy up into the air.

Lewis and Kimi got their trophies and then the champagne war began. In this second I thought, that it might not be the best idea to be up at the podium, but before I could run away Sebastian and Kimi were after me.

I screamed when two bottles of champagne were sprayed onto my face. And it was fucking cold. I held my hands up, trying to protect me from the stream.

Laughing the drivers let me go, spraying each other. I used the moment to get to clean my eyes a little. I was totally blind right now. But even with that though in my head, I couldn’t stop laughing.

I still couldn’t see clearly, but looking up, I could definitely see Sebastian getting close to me again. “Oh nonononononooo”, I scream laughing, protecting myself with my arms and turning my head away from him, when another stream hit me shortly after.

He laughed, before putting the bottle down and laying an arm over my shoulder. “Want a sip?”, he asked.

I nodded and went to reach for the bottle, but he pulled away. I understood, but I was pretty sure that would end bad for me. I laid my head back a little, opened my mouth. Sebastian put the bottle on my lips, carefully, with both hands. I could take one sip, before he pulled the bottle over my head. The liquid ran down my neck and my own body and I gagged, pushing Sebastian away, swallowing the rest of the champagne in my mouth. I knew this would happen and still I had to laugh.

“Juicy”, I said, glaring at Sebastian. I would pay him back for that. “I was better at swallowing when I was younger.”

And with that Sebastian laughed so hard he dropped the bottle on his foot. Payback.


	7. Jerez, 2019

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, after this .... race, I hope you are ready for some super-fun testing ;)
> 
> Thanks for your lovely comments!!
> 
> And a really really big THANK YOU to @formulaoneisfast for betaing.

Sebastian and I have been working together for three years now, actually this is our forth. And I have to admit that the two of us got along very well. We worked together perfectly, which I can prove with two World Championship titles Sebastian has won in the meantime. Besides, we had built up something like a friendship. It had probably developed from the fact that in our second joint race, Shanghai 2016, we found out that we had the same rather perverted sense of humour. I will spare you extracts at this point. I find it very unpleasant to look back at the kind of inappropriate jokes I sometimes make.

Anyway, our meetings became a bit more amusing from that point on. The good thing was that hardly anyone from the team understood us when we loudly joked around in German or talked quietly. Those who understood it usually shook their heads. This was especially true for Sebastian's press officer Britta. She even criticized Sebastian a few times when he himself produced such immoral words. It's not appropriate to talk about an arrogant sponsor behind his back. Especially not, that he would break his nose if he runs into a wall with a boner. Seriously, Sebastian! It's not appropriate! I didn't laugh at all. Well, maybe a little bit…

Well, the two of us became friends. Although we rarely met outside work - to be precise not at all - we could rely on each other and laugh together. When we didn't see each other, we talked at WhatsApp. Although our way of communication consisted of sending pictures back and forth. Just a few weeks ago, he sent me a picture in which he had stuck a moustache and a monobrow to his little son.

Oh, right, Sebastian now has a son. Little Fiete was born last March. Cute little guy! There were some pictures of him grinning crookedly. Sebastian said that he got it from his mother, but I knew that smile from the world champion as well.

Sarah and Sebastian didn't want to have another child, he had told me last year. Sarah had strong problems with Milena during her second pregnancy, because she kicked her a lot and with Fiete the whole thing probably became even worse. Three were enough in my opinion. I admired Sebastian's girlfriend for being able to manage the three small children and almost on her own. All too often her boyfriend wasn't at home.

They still hadn't married, by the way. But that was a joint decision. At least that’s what Sebastian keeps saying.

By the way, I had a boyfriend again in the meantime. But only for a few months. His name was Marco and he worked in data technology. We got to know each other when the printer in office tried to fool me. Yes, engineers also have problems with the printer as well. What made the technician interesting for me was the fact that he looked very much like my deceased husband. At least their faces had a similar shape and both had a full beard. However, Marco didn't have long black hair and he didn't play guitar very well and he didn’t even remotely approached my husband's character. Maybe I compared the two too much. That was at least Sebastian's opinion, who had also advised me to have dinner with Marco at least once. In my opinion, it was a total mistake to listen to the driver on that point - he only rolled his eyes when I told him that.

Well, last year in November it came to an abrupt end. Admittedly I was pretty mean to him in the end. He really didn't deserve that. He hadn't done anything wrong.

 

The day I want to tell you about is a Tuesday in February 2019. We were in Jerez for the test drives. I stood in front of Sebastian's new car for the season, which admittedly didn't look too good at all. Due to some random rule changes the nose of the car had to show a clear increase shortly before the start of the chassis. The drivers all had to sit further up, which caused us some problems with the centre of gravity. The further down the centre of gravity was, the better the handling was for the driver. Motive for the nose raise was probably that the driver should have to deal with less air resistance. This means that there is no longer such a huge force on the occupants and that a woman might also be able to sit in the cockpit. I don't have to tell you how ridiculous that was.

Carmen Jorda's  participation in one of last year's trainings was probably the reason for this change. The Spaniard hit the Lotus cars against the tyre stack in the second turn of the first fast lap. Afterwards, she had blamed the accident on a loss of control due to the fact that the physical strain was simply too intense. I don't want to doubt that the G-forces are incredibly difficult to endure. Sebastian had told me that he had considered giving up on Formula 1 after being exposed to these forces for the first time. But I think that was just an excuse for Jorda.

Maybe I should point out that I didn't like Jorda very much. In the last three years a little publicity has been made about me - no idea why. "A female engineer, that was something special. You should try to interview her as often as possible," the media seemed to think. At least Britta sent me countless silly requests, but the spokeswoman declined all of them. Jorda wanted to make profit out of the attention around me and asked me at lunch if I would like to do an interview with her for a local TV station. We would have so much in common, because we both work in development of Formula 1 cars.

I politely declined. Yes, politely! Possibly the word "bullshit" was used on my part, but that had really happened in a very nice, friendly and not at all with an aggressive tone of voice. Even though Sebastian liked to describe it a little differently...

Jorda didn't want to resign. When Sebastian retired the car on the weekend after the incident, the Spaniard raged about my inability and that such a thing would not have happened with a judicious race engineer. I didn't care much about her words, at least not in public. And so, the bitch war which she had probably wanted to start, fizzled out.

And from then on Miss Jorda ran around with a slightly crooked nose...

 

Damn, now I'm rambling. As already mentioned, I was standing in front of the car. Luca and Diego just made slight changes to the injection of the engine, while Ioverno, Britta, Maurizio and I stood next to it with our arms crossed and watched. Two working, four watching. Seems like a good cut, doesn't it?

I was just telling them about my motorcycle crash two weeks ago when Sebastian came into the pits and joined us. Luca greeted him first: "Hey hey! Did you have a nice winter break?"

"Yes", Sebastian said sarcastically and with a somewhat stiff smile. "It was great! My girlfriend broke up with me."

 

Silence.

 

 

Six pairs of eyes stared at the world champion in horror, frozen. Wow. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we didn't expect this confession - certainly not in that form.

The silence lasted too long. Without saying a word, the driver disappeared into the back of the box. When the door slammed behind him, we all woke up again.

"Fucking shit," Britta murmured.

"Maybe someone should talk to him," Maurizio threw in.

I stood closest to the door that had just slammed shut and still looking at it thoughtfully. "Yes," I agreed with my superior. But when no one reacted, I turned around and added: "Well, who volunte…?"

I paused, because suddenly I was standing alone at the car. Apparently my colleagues had used my brief inattentiveness to get away unnoticed. I only saw a single shoe disappear around the corner.

"Well, thank you too," I mumbled and carefully set off in the direction in which Sebastian had disappeared.

I found the world champion in the locker room where he was typing on his cell phone. When he saw me, he moaned annoyed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, this can’t be true. They sent you out of all people to comfort me?"

"What does that supposed to mean?" I snatched.

"Do you remember when Greenwood told us that his wife had a miscarriage?", the driver asked. I nodded. "You told him that you could understand how he felt. Your best friend's cat recently experienced the same thing".

"Yes, but... That... Well...", I started, but didn't really know how to get out of the affair. I felt like that is the right thing to say! Show empathy, consternation. "I'm good at comforting people," I postulated and then stepped a few steps closer and sat on the bench opposite the world champion.

Sebastian had to laugh. But no honest, hearty laughter. It was rather such a cold, sarcastic laugh. "No, seriously, Arianna. You can do a lot, but you can't comfort."

"Pfff!", I made and turned my head away from the driver, insulted. I heard his still amused grunt, then silence reigned between us. For quite a while. No one really wanted to pick up a conversation.

After a while I picked myself up, mainly because I couldn't sit so bent. "Do you know what also hurts?" I asked and hoped that he understood that I hinted at his heartache. Sebastian raised his eyes and looked at me questioningly.

I carefully pulled my jacket off my right shoulder and pushed the T-shirt a little to one side, so Sebastian could see the huge green-yellow-blue-violet haematoma stretching from my neck to my shoulder. Some parts of it where covered in ink, but you can still see it clearly.

Sebastian pulled the air in sharply. "Ouch, shit! What have you done?"

"Two weeks ago I crashed with my motorcycle at the Pannónia-Ring in Hungary . Highsider in the first 180-degree corner. Collarbone fracture", I explained briefly and observed the facial expressions of the driver in front of me. His face went through several emotions. Disgusted, filled with pain, then there was something like curiosity. "No, you may not touch it", I immediately forbade him and let the shirt slide back again. I already knew that look. It wasn't the first time that I presented him any broken bones of mine and every time he wanted to touch it.

"Oh, how rude," Sebastian said and pouted. I saw a little mischievous smile in the corners of his mouth.

"What I'm trying to get at, Mr. World Champion," I now made my excellent transition. "Like my shoulder, your heart will heal too." I knocked with my left hand very gently on my left breast and looked at the man in front of me encouragingly.

The look of my opposite was only surprised. Then he actually burst out laughing. In itself I should be happy to hear this honest laugh from him, but somehow I found it offensive. What was so funny about that? I found my analogy really good and successful. Just like the thing with the cat at that time.

"Oh Arianna, you are the worst comforter there is," Sebastian said between two laughs. In the meantime even tears formed in his eyes.

"Hey!" I complained and tried to cross my arms. Unfortunately, this always went very slowly and with caution, which robbed the performance of a little bit of the drama. So I just left them in their normal position. "Well, I found it very emotional."

"Yes, totally," Sebastian joked clearly sarcastically and tried to breathe deeply a few times to calm down. "Thank you, Arianna," he said with an honest smile and stood up. I wanted to do the same, but due to the pain it was very difficult, so the world champion helped me up and carefully put my right arm back into my jacket. Then he hugged me.

I couldn't really handle this sudden physical contact. Except after a pole position or a race victory, we were never in each other's arms. Unsettled, I patted him on the shoulder with my left hand. His arms snaked a little tighter around me.

"Not so hard," I pressed out. "I also have a few fractured ribs."

The driver giggled silently, then let go of me. Our eyes met briefly and I recognized a lot of warmth in his blue eyes.

"Well, we can get to work now," I said and grinned mischievously.

He laughed and went to the door to open it for me.

"Am I really such a bad comforter?" I asked as we walked down the hall.

Sebastian had to laugh again. "Remember when Luca told me that his daughter had to re-take fourth grade?" I made a guilty face. "And you said your best friend's cat went through the same thing lately?"

"My best friend doesn't have a cat at all," I confessed and looked at the floor with a grin.

The world champion laughed. "Damn, her pussy has it hard", he joked and slapped me very carefully on the back, probably not to hurt me.


	8. The beginning of the beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry about the delay, I'll hurry up with the next chapters!
> 
> Really big thank you @formulaoneisfast for betaing :)

Of all the words Sebastian could have used to described this weekend, ' _distracted'_ seemed to be the most accurate to me. No wonder, when you had to struggle with the separation from the woman with whom you already had three children. Our test runs were a dog’s breakfast - well, at least the dog didn't eat my friend's cat. I was happy to be able to use at least some records from Mick Schumacher, who was our new test and replacement driver since winter. They both had a halfway similar driving style.

However, none of us addressed Sebastian about this fiasco, as we all had more than a slight idea of where this "little sag" came from due to his frustrated mood. Of course the press didn't hold back so much, but they knew - so far! - at least nothing of Seb's and Sarah's separation. Of course this didn't change the fact that Sebastian had a "little" outburst of rage in front of the camera, which included the words "idiot" and "crap". Very polite choice of words, if you ask me. I probably would've made it to a "fucking asshole wanker". But it didn't change the fact that a little sigh went through our team when we heard Sebastian's interview on TV. As a cherry on top, Sebastian of course witnessed that.

"You know what helps with that?", I asked him mischievously with a nod to the TV. I regretted my words as soon as I saw his angry face. But now I had to say something, so there was no turning back. "Alcohol", I whispered almost silently, but clearly moved my lips.

Sebastian sighed annoyed, turned around and disappeared into his changing room. I screamed after him "MUCH OF IT", but wasn't sure if he heard that before the door slammed shut.

_Well done_ , I sarcastically agreed with myself.

 

I didn't see Sebastian that weekend anymore. Since the trainings were over, we were already cleaning up and Sebastian and I also had home flights in different directions (he was going to Switzerland and I’m travelling back to Maranello), we didn't walk into each other anymore.

And now here I was, Wednesday after training, sitting in my own private office (which I had to share with four other people) brooding over our miserable training times. I was alone because it was already after 6pm and it seemed as if my co-workers actually had a private life at home, for which it was worth it to finish as early as possible.

Surprised by myself, I looked up from my two computer monitors, staring instead at an undefined point on the wall. When the hell had I become so damn cynical? And when was the last time I quit work before 8 p.m. to just spend some time at home?

_Before your husband died_ , it suddenly shot through my head and made a grimace. The loss still hurt me and I still automatically stretched out my hand on his side of the bed in the morning just to find that it hadn't suddenly filled up with him again in the last 4.5 years and I still breathed deeply when I came home from work, hoping I could still sense a touch of his smell.  I even had one of his deodorants there with which I sprayed the pillow on the side of his bed every now and then. The bottle was empty in the meantime and everything that came out of it was lightly perfumed air, but only this little breeze was enough for me. Was that crazy? Probably. By the way, I had never invited Marco to my home.

Abruptly I was torn from my thoughts when my private mobile phone suddenly rang. I flinched and turned my eyes to the vibrating thing next to me. A Swiss number.

"Striegel", I said.

"Heeeeey," answered an husky voice from the other side. It took me a few seconds to realize that it belonged to Sebastian. "It's really weird that you still have the name of your dead husband."

Was he babbling?

"That's what you call 'respectful treatment of the dead'," I answered shortly. "Are you drunk?" I knew my protégé only drunk from the victory celebrations and had to confess that he was an extremely amusing drunk. Clumsy and quickly forgetting his manners.

"Hmmmm”, was his answer, followed by a too long pause.

I couldn’t help laughing. "Is there a particular reason you're calling or do you want me to read you a bedtime story?"

"Hmmmm", again. Another pause and I was sure that I heard a pillow rustling in which Sebastian snuggled up. "I just like hearing your voice."

"Aaaw, you little romantic," I said laughing.

"Don’t laugh at me," pouted Sebastian. "I mean it."

"Don't you usually call your ex-girlfriend drunk instead of your lovable colleague who is working overtime again?

"Sarah and I have talked enough," it came surprisingly firm from the other side.

There was a small pause, where I wondered what that meant.

"Why did you break up?" I asked carefully, then clamped the mobile phone between my ear and shoulder and saved the files on my computer.

"That's complicated," he said.

"I have time," I said. "I was just going to leave anyway." That was a lie, but I had only just noticed earlier that I should spend more quality time with Netflix.

"You work too much," Sebastian told me. "You're a workaholic." He chuckled.

I laughed briefly. "Hey, are we therapizing you or me here?" I asked with as much seriousness as possible in my voice.

"You of course! I called, exactly because of that. To therapize you," the world champion argued. His almost childlike chuckle, making me giggle.

"Okay, therapize me, Mr. World Champion. Even if I don't know what there is to be therapized", I lied and had to grin broadly while I spoke. I leaned back in my office chair and swung slightly back and forth.

"Oh, there's a lot!" Sebastian cried out. "The big central question for you is why a woman as cool... and as pretty and as young as you is single and just hanging around at work. You have to go out there, Arianna! You have to go out there and pick up guys. That's what youth is for."

"The youth?” I laughed loudly. "Sweetie, I am older than you! And we're both over 30. It's slowly over with our eternal youth."

"Pfff!"

"Besides, I can ask you the same thing. You are also an attractive single and rich as fuck. The girls are searching for someone like you." I took a little break to make sure he was still listening to me. "So why aren't you out there hitting on the next hot chick you run into?"

"Who says I'm not doing that right now?" he said immediately.

For a few seconds I was speechless. A little smile making its way to my face. "So you're hitting on me right now," I stated with a grin.

"Why not?

"Mainly because it's quite unprofessional to flirt with your race engineer," I responded.

"Aaaach, unprofessional. Pff," the racing driver mimicked me. "I would flirt with my physio, but he's not my type."

I laughed with a loud sound. "And your press officer?"

"Neither. " A small break developed. "I only want you."

I chuckled, not knowing how to respond to that. I thought about ending the call.  After all, my colleague was quite drunk and just went through a difficult breakup. Letting him flirt with me recklessly had something of 'stealing candy from a little child'. Shouldn't I find the whole thing much more unpleasant? More inappropriate? Unprofessional? Shouldn't it bother me that my closest colleague was flirting with me uninhibitedly? For some reason it didn't. On the contrary. I even found it quite amusing and that Sebastian liked me, flattered me.

"You’re not saying anything. Did I really make you speechless once?"

I could just imagine Sebastian grinning crookedly.

"Surprisingly yes," I admitted to him and smiled a little. "I don't know how to turn a rich, influential driver down who's drunk and going through a tough breakup, without getting him to report me to my boss for sexual harassment."

"Oh, you could expect a huge penalty as often as you're reaching for my ass," Sebastian laughed and again I heard the pillow crackle in the background.

"I guess it's your word against mine, sweetie."

"And all those pet names you always give me... That'll get you in trouble."

"Then I'll call you Sebastian from now on," I said with a grin.

“Argh, that’s boring!” he said. “I want something original. Something no one else got.”

“Ehh…” I thought about it a little. “Starlord?”

“Do I look like Chris Pratt?”

I stifle a _that would be nice_ und grinned silly. “Galactic President Superstar McAwesomeville.“

“You’re watching way to much TV” Sebastian signed.

_That would be nice_ , I thought. “Okay, last suggestion: Did you know, that I have an enormous crush on Norman Reedus since I watched Boondock Saints at the age of 14?” Sebastian growled in some sort agreement or resignation. “If it makes you happy and you’re not gonna sue me, I might call you Daryl. Or Murphy. Your choice.” I grinned mischievously.

“Hmm…” Sebastian thought about my proposal. “You think I’m equally hot as Norman Reedus.”

“Better, sweetie! You like dogs!”

“You see?! We are the perfect match!” Sebastian cried out and chuckled a little. “But no, don’t call me Daryl. I prefer you spontaneous ‘Sweetie’ or ‘Dick’… Or when you call me a ‘Wussy’ through the team radio.” We laughed at that memory.

“You get what you deserve” I said. I shut down my computer and put my stuff back into my backpack.

“Yeah…” Sebastian agreed. He paused for a while. I just put my backpack on when I heard him speak again. “I’m sorry I screwed up training. I know you have to fix up that mess.”

“Argh… Don’t worry”, I said while turning off the light and locking the door. The hallway already been dark. “As you said: I’m an workaholic. I live for overtime.”

“Which is leading us back to your therapy” Sebastian said. Suddenly he didn’t sound drunk anymore. “And to the fact, that you should go on a date… with me!” Wuhu! Drunk-Sebastian was back again!

I laughed hard. “Wow, now you’re getting bold.”

“Was that a ‘yes’?”

“That was a ‘we are colleagues and it would be super unprofessional if we go on a date’” I said smiling.

“The forbitten fruit is always the sweetest.” I saw him grinning lewdly in my head.

“Okay, you know what? If you got the balls to ask me that again when you’re sober, I’ll go on a date with you”, I suggested.

“Alright” Sebastian cheered. “But don’t forget that you were the one telling me to get wasted.”

“But I didn’t tell you to hit on your colleague.” I finally reached the first security door out of the building and took the stairs down to the parking lots. My voiced echoed unpleasantly from the walls. I nearly didn’t understand my own words.

“Oh, come on! You like that.” Sebastian laughed. “Otherwise you would have told me off by now.”

“Your self-confidence is admirable. Considering that you’ve been abandoned lately.” I grinned mischievously.

“That’s the alcohol” he admitted. “Do you really have to rub that in my face all the time?”

“You know me. That’s my style.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Oh come on! You like that.” I used his own words against him.

Sebastian chuckled.

I reached the end of the stairs and finally pushed open the second security door. I was standing on the parking lot. My car was the last one standing – not for the first time. Quickly I walked towards my Audi A4.

Normally I would drive with my motorbike, but today it was quite cold. I preferred my airconditioned car with heated seats on days like that.

“Okay, if you don’t want to tell me _why_ you broke up, at least tell me when”, I said while opening the drivers door and throwing my backpack on the passenger’s seat. I flinched when that action moved my shoulder too much and hurt my fractured collar bone.

“Not that easy to answer.” He replied while I carefully sat down in the car. “We’ve been fighting for a while. Throughout the whole last season actually. Between the races, in summer break. I didn’t really want to come home anymore, because I knew it would end up in a fight. At the end of the season we decided to take a break. Just to get our heads clear you know… Was a great celebration for my world championship.” He paused and I swallowed. “Well, last week we decided it wouldn’t make much sense anymore to keep our relationship going.” I feel like he left out a few parts.

“Wow” I said and turned the key in the ignition lock. “How do your kids feel about it?”

“Fiete and Milena don’t know what’s up. But Emma seems to understand. She always asks were I am. Even if it’s quite normal, that I’m gone so often.” He sounded sad and totally sober while saying that. I wanted to cheer him up, wanted back the happy, sassy Sebastian, who tried to hook up with me a few minutes ago.

But I didn’t know what to say. I knew nothing about kids. So I just signed.

“Why don’t you have kids?” Sebastian suddenly asked.

“Well, my husband died when I was 28.” I started the Diesel-engine to dampen the sound of my brittle voice. “We wanted to have kids then, in a few years maybe. But… well, he died. And I didn’t meet someone that I wanted to have a family with. And – I can’t emphasise that enough – I’m married with my job.” I tried to cheer up our mood by laughing. Hopefully it didn’t sound too fake.

“Trust me, having kids is great. You’ll notice it, when you hold your own child in your arms.”

“Well, I won’t know what it’s like.” I said and pushed the throttle a little too hard. I left the lot with spinning wheels. It wasn’t that easy to change gear with a fractured collarbone on the one side and an cell phone in the other.

“Aargh, come on. You’re still young. If you want it, I’ll help you produce offspring.”

I laughed, and this time it was a genuine laugh. “Wow, and we are back to sexual harassment.”

“Just for reproduction! Pretty and smart women like you definitely should have an offspring.” He laughed.

“Do you have in mind, that you would have four children you have to pay alimony for?” I laughed again while hitting the street. Yeah, I use my telephone while driving. I’m not a good role model. “And I would be a single mother, who would travel the world with her infant while working 20 hour shifts.”

“I’ll raise him or her in the hotel room while you’re working.” Sebastian joked. At least I hoped he was joking…

“Oh, so you want contact with our product?” I asked.

“Product?!” he said with a mixture of amusement and contempt. “We are talking about an human being.”


End file.
